In June 2024, a team led by Japan’s NICT and Aston University achieved 402 Tbps over a single standard optical fiber using six wavelength bands (O, E, S, C, L, and U). In March 2024, the same international team reached 301 Tbps by extending into E-band and S-band with a custom amplifier for those bands.…
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Fiber-optic drones carry control commands and high-bandwidth video via a tether, delivering a 1 Gbps (1000Base-T) link with near-zero latency and immunity to RF jamming. Fiber communications were pioneered by Charles Kao in 1966 and proven practical by 1977, enabling high-bandwidth data transfer for drones. Russia deployed fiber-tethered kamikaze FPV drones in spring 2024 during…
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The 2017 U.S. Department of Defense project Maven was launched to apply AI-based computer vision to analyze drone surveillance footage in the Middle East, with fielding by year’s end. In 2019, China released its National Defense White Paper announcing the goal of “intelligentized warfare” and a plan to become the world AI leader by 2030.…
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In April 2023, AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 demonstrated the first two-way voice call from an off-the-shelf smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S22) to a satellite. In November 2022, Apple launched Emergency SOS via Satellite on iPhone 14 using Globalstar, with the service free for two years. In September 2022, Lynk Global received the FCC license for commercial…
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CANTV, the state-owned fixed broadband incumbent, dominated traditional internet with about 56% market share as of late 2022, while its aging ADSL copper network remained slow and repair backlogs persisted. From August 2020 to August 2023, Venezuela jumped 50 places in Speedtest’s global broadband index, rising from an average 6.15 Mbps to 29.5 Mbps. By…
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Countries and Companies Supplying Drones to Ukraine Types and Models of Drones Used by Ukraine (by Function) Ukraine employs a vast array of drones, both military-grade and civilian, serving different functions on and off the battlefield. Below are the major categories of drone types and notable models in each category: Ukrainian Drone Manufacturers and Domestic…
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The Knyaz Vandal Novgorodsky fiber-optic FPV drone, built by the Russian volunteer group Ushkuinik led by Aleksey Chadaev, was deployed in August 2024 in Russia’s Kursk region to counter Ukrainian incursions. By late 2024 and early 2025, elite Russian fiber-optic FPV units named Rubicon and Sudny Den operated in eastern Ukraine, carrying spools up to…
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As of early 2024, Morocco had 34.47 million internet users, representing about 90.7% of the population. In 2024, Morocco recorded 51.36 million cellular connections, equating to a mobile penetration of 135%. The three leading mobile operators are Maroc Telecom (IAM) with about 42.9% of mobile users, Orange Maroc with 33.2%, and Inwi with 23.9%. 4G…
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In February 2023 Ukraine abolished value-added tax (VAT) and import duties on drones and related equipment, with exemptions extended to at least January 1, 2025 under martial law. Under the “235 Preference,” international postal and express UAV shipments to Ukraine are fully exempt from customs duties and VAT. In early 2023 the Cabinet canceled the…
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In May 1999, NASA’s Deep Space 1 operated for three days with the Remote Agent AI, planning activities and diagnosing simulated faults autonomously. From 2001 to 2004, NASA’s EO-1 carried the Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE), using onboard machine learning and the CASPER planner to re-task after events like volcanic eruptions. In 2013, JAXA’s Epsilon rocket…
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